Various combustion, chemical, and/or other process systems produce byproducts that may be released to the environment as undesirable emissions. For example, gas turbines, boiler systems, refineries, and other combined cycle systems may produce exhaust gases that contain various levels of undesirable emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), sulfuric acid, nitric acid, formaldehyde, benzene, metal oxides, and other volatile organic compounds.
The exhaust gases are typically filtered, scrubbed, or otherwise treated to ensure that the undesirable emissions do not exceed applicable limits. For example, various additives such as ammonia or ozone may be mixed with the exhaust gases before flowing the mixture through a catalyst to remove some or all of the undesirable emissions from the exhaust gases. Although effective during normal or steady state operations, the temperature of the exhaust gases during startup or transient operations may require larger amounts of additives and/or reduce the effectiveness of the catalyst. In addition, an unsuccessful start event of the gas production source may create conditions hazardous to the environment and/or human health near the exhaust. As a result, an improved system and method for reducing emissions that does not require an additive or catalytic reaction would be useful.